GesherCity Boston throws party on the Redline.(Jewish Living)

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CAMBRIDGE -- For its summer information session last week, GesherCity Boston, a community-bridging group (gesher is Hebrew for "bridge") chose an informal setting in hopes of attracting young Jewish organizations and individuals from the Greater Boston area.

The venue for the July 14 event at Redline, a Harvard Square restaurant, offered free food and a chance to socialize, at a cost of $3 per person. The event drew more than 150 people from 14 organizations--the most ever, according to Alison Rosen, GesherCity Boston's outreach and network coordinator. "We used to have people sitting in a restaurant and listening to people speak the whole time," she said.

Each organization leader had a handful of flyers and was wearing a unique hat, generally chosen by the members of GesherCity Boston. Attendees were able to look for a particular organization leader by his or her hat and add their names and email addresses to that group's list; they also could sign up on the Internet for one of the four GesherCity clusters by going to the Web site www.geshercity.org and clicking on "Boston."

GesherCity Boston is funded by a grant from the Combined Jewish Philanthropies.